Story+1981-07-02+East+Rutherford,+NJ

“Hello, New Jersey (crowd cheers)…”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Darkness on the Edge of Town”**

“Thanks...I haven’t seen nothing like this (chuckles)(crowd cheers) here’s, yeah, we’re gonna play a long time tonight so you guys ought to sit down (crowd cheers) this is, uh, this is “Independence Day” and (crowd cheers) and I need...I need a little, I need a little bit of quiet for this song, thank you...(music starts)...I remember when I was a kid that, uh...the only thing I could remember when I was a teenager was I always...I always felt ashamed of myself when I was young, for some reason...and I could never figure out why...and...as I got older and I moved away from my folks...I used to try and think back about what was....what was wrong with the way I was feeling back then and why it seemed I was always, I could never connect with my old man and...and...I guess part of the reason was because when I was...when I was 16 or 17, he wasn’t, he wasn’t much older than I am right now...and…I wouldn’t give him the room to have...to have the same...hopes and dreams that I had when I was growing up, I thought because he was my father or because he was older that...that he...there was a point where you give up those things...and...all I remember was him sitting in the kitchen all the time, coming home after work, just sitting there and he sat there for 18 years and I never once asked him what he was thinking about...and...later on I...about two years ago...I was down in California and he came out and visited, visited down with me...and we talked about a lot of things that we should’ve talked about when...when I needed to hear ‘em and he needed to hear ‘em...and it took us, took us 30 years just to be able to tell each other that we loved each other (crowd cheers) so if you’ve got parents at home, you ought to go home and ask ‘em what they’re thinking about, you know, they might surprise you... ”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Independence Day”**

“Back in...back in 1977, I guess it was, we went...we were playing down in Memphis, Tennessee...and it was late at night...and we drove past Graceland (crowd cheers) and...the rest...I’m gonna save (chuckles)…but I went down to Philadelphia and I saw (crowd cheers) I saw Elvis, it was one, I believe it was the last tour that he ever did...and, I went and I remember I felt, I felt disappointed because he didn’t play the old songs like...like I remembered ‘em... and he sang...two songs he sang best all night was...was a song called “American Trilogy” and a song called “How Great Thou Art” ...and it wasn’t long after that that he died...and I used to think back and try and understand what happened to him, why...why he ended up like he did...and how easy it is to...to get...to get everything and to lose...lose that thing inside you that keeps you, that keeps you alive, you know...anyway, this is for Elvis ‘cause he, he deserved better than he got (crowd cheers)...”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Johnny Bye Bye”**

“This…this is a song…by Woody Guthrie and…I need a little, I need a little quiet for this song, thank you…”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “This Land Is Your Land”**

“(?) listen, we’re gonna take just a short break, then we’re gonna be back and we’re gonna do another whole set for you (crowd cheers) so I’ll see you in a little while, ok? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, after “Thunder Road”**

“This is, this is called “Wreck on the Highway” (crowd cheers) I need a little quiet for this song…”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Wreck on the Highway”**

“And then… (…) We have with us tonight...on our stage...a galaxy of celebrities ...beginning at the far left of the stage, on that thing that we like to call “a piano,” let’s hear it for Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) play it, Roy (Roy plays) this man to my left...the poet of the soul, master of rock and roll, a man who brought you such great hits as “I Don’t Wanna Go Home,” “Sweeter than Honey,” “This Time It’s for Real,” “Some Things Just Don’t Change,” “Daddy’s Come Home,” on the guitar, Mr. Miami Steve Van Zandt (crowd cheers) and now to my immediate left, (?) can I say he’s a man who’s a great humanitarian, a great veterinarian, can I say a close personal friend of mine? no! I can’t say he’s any of those things but just let me say Mr. Garry W. Tallent on the bass guitar (crowd cheers) and now we’ve got a little special occasion here, the man behind me is playing his first night in the E Street Band as a married man (crowd cheers) he’s married now, girls...gotta read ‘em and weep!...let’s hear it for Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) oh yeah (?) and now to the far right, a man from the same town that brought you that great “Flemington Furs”-commercial you see on TV in the wintertime, Mr. Dan Federici from Flemington (crowd cheers) and now (crowd cheers) last but not least...what can I say?...the man (?) we like to call him...he’s known to his friends as the greatest living human being...but you guys can just call him the king of the world...master of the universe....emperor of all things...faster than a speeding bullet...more powerful than a roaring locomotive...able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…is it a bird? (crowd: “No”) is it a plane? (crowd: “No”) I’ve got to say it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s... Spotlight on the Big Man!...”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Rosalita”**

“Uh, we just came back from a big trip, we were all around Europe, in England and all those places...and...it’s really something over there, it’s, it’s different than New Jersey (chuckles)(crowd cheers) and...the people were great and I’d like, what I’d like to...I just wanna say you guys, you guys made, uh, made tonight for us, thank you (crowd cheers) you were great, nobody better so (chuckles) (crowd cheers) anyway, this is something special that we learned for you, this is a Tom Waits song and it’s on his “Heartattack and Vine” album..and uh, this is for all the Jersey girls (?)...”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Jersey Girl”**

“Come on, Steve…we’re gonna do a song that Steve wrote now… he’s gonna sing it with me…”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “I Don’t Wanna Go Home”**

“Wait a minute…wait a minute…wait a minute…wait a minute…wait a minute…wait a minute…Big Man, I feel…the moves coming up (crowd cheers) I may be…I’m about to come down with a bad case of the moves (crowd cheers)…Big Man…I got a gas crisis…I got a gas, I mean I’m running out of gas…I mean I got a gas crisis…I’ve been doing this all night…you can’t do this all night (crowd cheers) I gotta go home, put on the TV, get ‘em little Pop Tarts in the toaster, sit back and (?) put on Johnny Carson…got a gas crisis…we don’t need the gas?...did somebody steal the car?...we need the car…we need the car because…because…because…I see a train…”
 * 02.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, middle of “Detroit Medley”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//